Unsheathed

Early-rising birds would have insects to eat, and only night-grazing horses would grow fat.

This principle was indeed logical, and this saying was indeed common and logical. However, even though the pitiful young Daoist priest woke up early and went to bed late, and he opened his fortune-telling stall earlier than his neighbor and closed it later than his neighbor, he was still unable to “eat” anything or “grow fat”.

This was because the residents in the small town were more willing to believe that the old Daoist priest wearing the fishtail hat was a genuine immortal, and that he was more accurate when it came to fortune-telling. Moreover, he wouldn’t grab every opportunity to try to ask for free food and drinks.

In addition to this, he would never treat his customers differently, regardless of whether they were beautiful young women or elegant and mature women. He was filled with a righteous aura, and he would definitely never come up with new and novel ways to trick little children of their snacks like a certain someone else.

When it came to doing business, the most frightening thing was to have your product compared to someone else’s.

Thus, it could be said that the young Daoist priest had experienced both the warmth and coldness of human nature these past few days. To say nothing of becoming rich, it was very likely that he barely had enough money to even put food on the table now. Even the young women who had enjoyed chatting with him before didn’t acknowledge him anymore. Not only did they not visit his stall to have their palms read, but they would even pretend that they didn’t recognize him when they walked past his stall.

The young Daoist priest could only comfort himself by thinking that these young and adorable women, who carried with them the fragrance of plants and nature, were only pretending to be unfamiliar with him on the surface. Deep down, however, they were actually doing this because they were shy and too embarrassed to greet him. They were actually filled with adoration and love for him. Otherwise, why were they all dressed in such beautiful clothes when they walked past his stall? And these beautiful clothes would be different every day as well.

The young Daoist priest was unwilling to disappoint these young girls and let their feelings go unnoticed, so being as eagle-eyed as him, he would always greet them by their names and say a few words of praise. For example, praising them for having a beautiful hairpin, or praising them for having a beautiful and fitting dress, and so on…

The young women would often become slightly flustered and walk away quickly. Of course, there were also some brave women who would turn around and make eyes at him. Some of them would also scold him and call him pathetic. However, it was a shame that none of them approached his fortune-telling store to give him business.

This caused the young Daoist priest to feel slightly sad. As he sat idly behind his stall every day, he would either be using his sleeves to wipe the bamboo container clean or holding the bamboo slips up and exhaling over them. Sometimes he would also hold his hands behind his head and rock back and forth, or directly rest his head on the table and gaze sideways at the bustling business of the neighboring stall. Comparing oneself to others could truly anger one to death.

Fortunately, the young Daoist priest didn’t let his embarrassment transform into rage even after having no business from morning until night, day after day. From time to time, he would even walk over to the old Daoist priest’s stall to make some small talk with him. This caused the old man, who was contemplating whether to move to a new location, to feel slightly more relaxed. In the end, he even felt a slight sense of pity for the young and stupid Daoist priest.

Since he had already made a small fortune in the small town, enough to last him for half a year, he decided to provide some guidance to the young Daoist priest. When there were no customers, he waved his hand and invited the young Daoist priest with the lotus hat over. The young Daoist priest giddily ran over and sat on the bench, and there was an eager and expectant expression on his face as he asked, “Immortal Elder, do you have something to teach me? Are you going to offer me some incredible tips?”

The old Daoist priest picked up the small teacup beside his hand and took a sip of cool tea. He sighed and asked in a frank manner, “Did you just enter this business not long ago?”

There was a troubled expression on the young Daoist priest’s face as he replied, “It can’t be considered a short time. However, my business is always worse than others.”

The Daoist orthodoxy was split into three branches, with each of the Dao Ancestor’s disciples responsible for leading one branch. These branches shared the same origin, yet they flowed in different directions. Not only did these branches flourish in a certain world and develop power and influence as majestic as the Confucian Sect in the Majestic World, but they even gave rise to many large sects in the Majestic World where the Great Li Empire belonged. These sects had become important and deeply ingrained forces in the Majestic World.

In addition to them, there were also countless Daoist temples that enjoyed many worshippers and incense offerings. Each continent in the Majestic World also had a Dao Master, Heavenly Lord, or Spiritual Master who possessed a blessed land.

The old man pointed at his unlucky “junior” before pointing at himself and saying, “You’ve already been in this business for quite a while? Then you’re truly lucky that you haven’t been arrested and forced to eat prison meals yet! Let me ask you this. Why in the world are you wearing this lotus flower hat? Do you know that only a tiny number of Daoist temples and forces have the right to wear this style of Daoist hat in Eastern Treasured Vial Continent?

“Among them, the most powerful is Southern Stream Nation’s Divine Edict Sect. Their sect leader and Spiritual Master is none other than Old Immortal Qi, the Dao Master of the continent. He was just promoted to the position of Heavenly Lord last year! As for the remaining Daoist temples, which of them isn’t a top-notch immortal force?

“Will Daoist priests from these forces need to leave the mountains to set up crappy little stalls and work as fortune tellers? Will they need to interact with hillbillies and village women who reek of dirt? What, don’t tell me you’re an immortal from Divine Edict Sect? Or perhaps a Daoist priest from those large Daoist temples?”

The young Daoist priest waved his hand and said, “No, I’m neither of these.”

He was Lu Chen, so he was naturally neither of these things.

The old man was peeved, and was just about to scold this rash young man. However, he suddenly exclaimed with an astonished expression. As it turned out, there were two people standing in front of the neighboring fortune-telling stall, a middle-aged man and a young boy.

Even though the middle-aged man had a sickly expression, he was still radiating with a powerful aura that made him appear much like a government official. He possessed the might and disposition of an official! Meanwhile, the young boy was dressed in white robes and had a jade belt around his waist. His face was also jade-like, and it was clear that he was a young master who had been raised in a wealthy clan.

The two people silently stood in front of the stall next door, and it was as if they were patiently waiting for the young Daoist priest to return.

The old Daoist priest’s sense of pity instantly vanished into a puff of smoke. When he looked at the stupidly lucky young Daoist priest again, he couldn’t help but find him an eyesore.

Lu Chen thanked the old Daoist priest with a smile before taking his leave and returning to his own stall. After sitting down, he asked, “Are you here to draw a bamboo slip or to have your face read?”

The middle-aged man sat down and shook his head. “We’re not here for either of these things,” he replied with a smile. “In any case, things have already come to this, so there’s no point in drawing slips or asking for a face reading.”

He looked at the young Daoist priest and hesitated for a moment. In the end, he still cupped his fists for the first time in his life and said honestly, “I’m a mortal ruler, so according to the etiquette of the Majestic World, I don’t need to kneel down in front of any immortal. Now that Branch Master Lu has blessed my Great Li Empire’s Dragon Spring Prefecture with his presence, neither do I need to kneel and kowtow, nor can I bow according to Confucian etiquette. So, let us treat this as a chance encounter in the cultivation world. I’ll be bold and welcome Branch Master Lu using the method of people in the cultivation world. Please don’t be offended.”

Lu Chen smiled and said, “How very strange. You’re an emperor, so why don’t you refer to yourself as ‘We’ or ‘the virtueless one’[1]?”

“With Spiritual Master Lu here, I truly don’t dare to do so,” the middle-aged man replied with a bitter smile.

“And here I was thinking that the Song Clan emperor of the Great Li Empire was a heroic and brave person who was afraid of neither heaven nor earth,” Lu Chen said in amusement. “After all, you were quite brave when A’Liang charged all the way to the imperial palace’s White Jade Capital, weren’t you? You refused to kneel no matter what. I was watching the show from the distant Southern Stream Nation back then, and even I couldn’t help but shed some cold sweat for you.”

“If I kneeled, then all of the essence and spirit accumulated by the ancestors of the Great Li Empire’s Song Clan would have collapsed and dissipated,” the emperor of the Great Li Empire said in a self-deprecating manner. “So, how could I possibly kneel? Even if he cut my head off, my body could not fall on its knees.”

Lu Chen nodded before suddenly smiling and asking, “Are you here to wag your tail and beg for pity because you constructed a replica of the White Jade Capital without permission? Or are you here to accuse me of a crime because an immortal from the Lu Clan screwed you over?”

“Of course not,” the emperor of the Great Li Empire replied with a smile. “I’m not willing to do so, and I don’t have the courage to do so either. In any case, I need to personally attend when that mountain is elevated to the status of the Northern Mountain of the Great Li Empire. Truth be told, the Mohist Sect’s Xu Ruo went as far as delivering a message to me using his bonded flying sword when I was halfway here. He encouraged me not to show myself in front of you.

“The imperial preceptor also held a similar opinion. Both of them were forthright, and both of them didn’t hold back. This was especially the case with Imperial Preceptor Cui. He’s extremely familiar with my temper, so he was afraid that I would offend Branch Master Lu if I decided to give up all hope and go all out.”

Lu Chen casually looked the terminally ill emperor up and down. He clicked his tongue in wonder and remarked, “I’m very curious about one thing. A’Liang’s punch shattered your bridge of immortality, and this both freed you from your fate as a puppet and shortened your life considerably. Are you grateful toward him, or do you deeply resent him?”

“Both,” the emperor of the Great Li Empire replied. “In fact, it can be said that I don’t feel much of either toward him. Ever since ancient times, there have been rules and regulations in the Majestic World to bind and restrain rulers. Qi refiners at the Middle Five Tiers are prohibited from becoming rulers, and Qi refiners at the Lower Five Tiers are prohibited from ruling an empire for more than 60 years. In addition to this, emperors are innately unsuited to cultivation.

“However, I was unable to resist the temptation from Mr. Lu, who helped construct the White Jade Capital, and I walked down a heretical path and secretly cultivated to the 10th tier. This was naturally a huge mistake. Even so, I gave in to my desire because I dearly wanted to hear the iron hooves of the Great Li Empire’s warhorses thundering across the southern seashore outside Old Dragon City.”

The emperor of the Great Li Empire appeared full of spirit and energy when he said this, and it was as if he were a sick old man experiencing a period of terminal lucidity. “If that day truly comes, I believe it will be even more remarkable and thunderous than the ferocious thunder of spring.”

Lu Chen didn’t offer any response to this. Instead, he said, “It was quite impressive for you to clean out your clan and forces in such a short amount of time, and you even had the courage to turn down the offer from Middle Earth Divine Continent’s Lu Clan. Of course, this is in large part thanks to the sudden decision of the Mo Clan’s main branch to support the Great Li Empire. No matter what, your life as an emperor… has been full of ups and downs.”

The emperor wasn’t surprised at all. Even though immortals also needed to abide by the complex rules and regulations established by the Etiquette Sage, the handsome young Daoist priest sitting in front of him wasn’t an immortal in the ordinary sense.

Why had the emperor of the Great Li Empire insisted on coming to the small town to personally visit this “young” Daoist priest? Was this not because of his feeling of respect and admiration toward Branch Master Lu? This was a most simple and pure kind of feeling.

Like a tall mountain that one must gaze up at, like a righteous path that one yearns to follow[2]; though impossible to reach, one still longs to arrive at that destination.

If one could truly arrive at that destination and personally witness the tall mountain, then that would also be a great fortune of one’s life.

A hint of unease and hope appeared on the emperor’s face, and he asked, “Since Branch Master Lu is here, can I perhaps overcome this calamity?”

Lu Chen smiled and shook his head. “Flowing down the dazzling mortal river of stars, you’ve always been one of the more brilliant and eye-catching ones. I can naturally extend your lifespan, and to say nothing of 10 years or 100 years, I can even extend it by 1000 years without much difficulty.

“However, once I extend your lifespan and change your destiny, I’m afraid you’ll have to abandon your position and follow me to some other world. Only by doing so will you genuinely be able to survive. Otherwise, do you truly think the rules and regulations established by the Etiquette Sage are only for show? Do you think those statues in the Confucian temples are nothing more than dead and inanimate objects?”

The emperor of the Great Li Empire sighed and remained silent for a long time.

Lu Chen looked the expressionless young boy up and down with a sideways glance, and he chuckled, “Song Jixin, or should I call you Song Mu? What a coincidence, the two of us have crossed paths again. Do you know that Qi Jingchun held you in very high regard? Do you know that initially, you should have been one of the critical people who inherited his lineage? Qi Jingchun didn’t simply use an illusion technique against me. Otherwise, my oriole definitely wouldn’t have taken that copper coin that you tossed out. However, it’s a pity that while your destiny is fairly good, you’re missing just a little bit of luck. Just a tiny little bit.”

Lu Chen held his hand up, and his index finger and thumb were only a sliver away from touching. He sneered and continued, “The books that Qi Jingchun gave you possessed the genuine fortune of his scholarly lineage. Yet, you were actually unwilling to bring a single one away with you. You have to realize that a righteous aura exists between heaven and earth. However, this intangible aura of righteousness also possesses its own spirituality. Someone gave you something, yet you were unable to grab their gift with both hands. You can’t blame anyone but yourself.”

Song Jixin’s mind became a chaotic mess, and cold sweat immediately flowed down his

“Song Mu!” the emperor roared softly.

Song Jixin finally regained a sliver of composure, yet he still trembled uncontrollably and looked like he was on the verge of collapsing.

Lu Chen continued to jeer at him, saying, “Flustered already, young lad? Are you feeling intense regret? Song Jixin, then have you considered this before? If you truly grabbed that fated opportunity with both hands, would you have been able to endure the consequences? Why did Qi Jingchun die because of Jewel Small World? Ignoring his act of seeking death, and his refusal to enter the small world given to him by the Scholarly Sage, the biggest factor was the backlash from the Heavenly Dao.

“If you became stained with even a tiny bit of that backlash, you would have been riddled with trouble for an extremely long time. If that were the case, then so what if you became the emperor of the Great Li Empire? So what if the iron hooves of the Great Li Empire’s heavy cavalry crushed the southern seashore of the Great Li Empire?”

The emperor placed a heavy hand on the young boy’s shoulder and said in a solemn voice, “Don’t overthink these things!”

Lu Chen didn’t push any further, and he said in a lazy voice, “People always like to feel deep regret over opportunities that brushed past their shoulders, and people always like to busy themselves with feelings of envy toward the fated opportunities and fortunes of others. Haha, how hilarious and amusing.”

The emperor retracted his hand, and his palm was already filled with sweat. His face became increasingly pale, and he asked, “Branch Master Lu, can you spare the Great Li Empire?”

Lu Chen faltered upon hearing this, and he suddenly slammed the table and said with a loud laugh, “An unfortunate prophecy will come true!”

He then observed his surroundings before squinting his eyes and gazing at someplace high up in the sky. He smiled faintly and asked, “What do you say? This isn’t a case of me forcing you to do something difficult. Rest assured, I’ll let nature take its course regarding what happens in the future. I don’t have any spare time to waste in this place. To put things bluntly, I wouldn’t have been willing to subject myself to the rules of others in this place if it weren’t for Qi Jingchun.”

The old Daoist priest in the neighboring stall felt muddleheaded and tired. After the young Daoist priest returned to his own stall, the old Daoist priest started to feel drowsy and even showed signs of nodding off. Moreover, no customer approached his stall, so he was sitting there all by himself. However, even the old Daoist priest didn’t notice the changes that were silently taking place on his palms. As one of the ridges on his palm grew longer, his lifespan also grew longer along with it. This was an unnoticeable bestowal of fortune.

This was because the young Daoist priest’s mood finally improved from the terrible state it was in due to the actions of the Lu Clan. Thus, he decided to casually bestow some fortune upon the old Daoist priest.

The emperor of the Great Li Empire bade farewell and took his leave with Song Jixin. He was feeling mixed emotions, and he didn’t dare to turn around and look back.

Lu Chen suddenly sighed with emotion for no apparent reason, remarking, “The world is truly full of mystical and indescribable wonders.”

In reality, the sages from the three teachings and the hundred schools of thought as well as the powerful figures and leaders from the old clans and forces were all extremely busy people. They were all preparing for the imminent chaos and battles that were soon going to sweep through the world.

The spring breeze would transform into rain, in which the people in the mortal world would bathe. Good and evil would be rewarded or punished, and blessings and misfortunes would be decided by one’s actions.

The young Daoist priest snapped his fingers, causing the world to return to normal. He gazed at the tall mountain to the west and said, “Go on, you can leave now. What happens after this will have nothing to do with you.”

1. The “We” (朕) in this case is the royal first-person pronoun. The latter is referring to the title 寡人, a humble pronoun used by emperors in ancient China. It literally means someone who is lacking virtue (寡德). ☜

2. An extract from the Classic of Poetry, the oldest existing collection of Chinese poetry, comprising 305 works dating from the 11th to 7th centuries BC. A tall mountain symbolizes someone of lofty morals and profound knowledge. ☜